#1 Food, Wine & Hospitality Industry Event
Coastal Luxury Management owns and produces the culinary festival, presenting it with founding partners Food & Wine and Lexus. The event draws about 15,000 food and wine fans over the course of a late-summer weekend. Last year’s festivities for the sixth annual program ranged from strolling tasting events at the Santa Monica Barker Hangar’s Lexus Grand Tasting, to a private tour of the new Broad museum. Next: August 24-27, 2017
#2 Food, Wine & Hospitality Industry Event
Although the Los Angeles Times recently announced a large-scale new food festival, known as Food Bowl and slated to blanket the city the entire month of May, the newspaper will also continue with its annual Labor Day ticket festival known as The Taste. The program typically comprises distinct events over three days, all meant to celebrate the diverse and increasingly more influential food scene in the city. This year’s event will be the festival’s eighth iteration. Next: September 2-4, 2017
#3 Food, Wine & Hospitality Industry Event
The event is billed as one of the biggest food and wine fests in the nation. It convenes 150 wineries, breweries, and spirits companies, 60 San Diego restaurants, and 10,000 attendees. Among 2016’s major sponsors were Lexus and Southwest. Next: November 13-19, 2017
#4 Food, Wine & Hospitality Industry Event
Presented by the Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board twice each year, DineL.A. is a 15-day dining event meant to showcase the city as a dining destination while highlighting its culinary diversity. More than 300 restaurants offer special lunch and dinner menus. Next: July 2017
#5 Food, Wine & Hospitality Industry Event
The three-day event draws more than 8,000 restaurant and food service professionals and 500 vendors, for education and exhibits covering menu trends, design, and decor. The annual event takes over the Los Angeles Convention Center each summer. Next: August 27-29, 2017
#6 Food, Wine & Hospitality Industry Event
The relative newcomer to the food event scene brings together chefs and and fans for four days each March. The signature facet of the event is intimacy and access, with each event as part of the program allowing guests to get up close and personal with the chefs; the Chefs Tasting Arena and Restaurant Stadium venue has stadium seating, lights, cameras, and LED screens, giving fans clear sight lines from all over. Next: March 2018
#7 Food, Wine & Hospitality Industry Event
Top chefs and mixologists donate their time and talents to the event at Media Park in Culver City aimed at ending childhood hunger in America. Attendees come for tastes from more than 50 restaurants, breweries, wineries, and mixologists with host chef Bruce Kalman. This year’s participating restaurants include Union Pasadena, Faith and Flower, Hanjiip, and Madcapra. Next: June 11, 2017
#8 Food, Wine & Hospitality Industry Event
More than 2,000 people attended the 2016 event, just seven years old. It brought in top chefs and mixologists from across the country to support the fight against childhood cancer. The September event raised more than $1 million; live and silent auctions alone brought in $440,000. Jimmy Kimmel and several chefs pulled together two spontaneous dinners that went for a total of $110,000. Chef Suzanne Goin and business partner Caroline Styne along with chef David Lentz hosted the event at U.C.L.A. Next: September 2017
#9 Food, Wine & Hospitality Industry Event
The 21st annual benefit, the U.C.L.A. Jonsson Cancer Center Foundation’s signature event, took over the Beverly Wilshire Hotel with wine tastings, food, entertainment, and a live auction. Over the past 20 years, the event has raised more than $10 million for highest-priority cancer research at the university. Next: April 28, 2017
#10 Food, Wine & Hospitality Industry Event
The wine event and tasting dinner benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Ranked as one of Wine Spectator’s top 10 U.S. charity wine auctions, the event takes over the “Midwest Street” backlot at Warner Brothers in Burbank. About 50 international chefs and 75 California wineries participate in the event, which has raised about $30 million in support of the mission of the foundation. Next: May 20
#11 Food, Wine & Hospitality Industry Event
Amid national debate on its future, Planned Parenthood hosted its sold-out culinary event at Santa Monica’s Barker Hangar. And its fund-raising tally jumped up to more than $1 million—a record figure. Guests came for food and drink samples from more than 150 Southern California restaurants, caterers, and spirits providers. Food Fare began in 1979 with a cooking demonstration by Julia Child and has grown over nearly four decades to become one of the city’s long-established food events. Next: March 2018
